The Turing Foundation

The Turing Foundation aims to let people in The Netherlands enjoy art.

The Turing Foundation therefor supports expositions of paintings in The Netherlands, live performances of classical music in The Netherlands, and publications or recitals of Dutch poetry in The Netherlands

More information on submitting an application on one of these working areas can be found in our application procedures .

Below, you will find an impression of the most important initiatives that we have previously supported:

enjoying poetry
enjoying painting
enjoying classical music

Most recent projects:

May 2008	Turing Car for the Boijmans van Beuningen and the Chabot Museum A special ‘Turing Car’ will transport children from Rotterdam and surroundings to and from the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum and the Chabot Museum free of charge. What’s more, each meer...	May 2008	Delft Chamber Music Festival, 2008 The Delft Chamber Music Festival has been organising performances of chamber music in the summer months for over 20 years. Every year, around 6,000 music lovers visit meer...
May 2008	Noorderkerk Concerts: Market Place for Music The Noorderkerk Concerts Foundation each year performs a series of 30 to 35 short, easily accessible concerts of high quality in an informal atmosphere. meer...	May 2008	Wouter van Bemmel's "Persweeën" The sound of printing presses running and the Monotype pouring machine form the basis of this piece of music by Wouter van Bemmel. The composition will meer...
May 2008	Music Theatre Show “Me and the Queen”, Max Tak Orchestra Children who have never before seen an orchestra perform live, and have no knowledge of classical music, can in this show meer...	May 2008	Poetry Circus 2008 The Poetry Circus organises literature and poetry performances for a young, new and varied audience, such as the Poetry Slam. The combination of experienced poets and new talent turns out to be a great success. meer...
May 2008	*Rossini's Opera Il Turco In Italia, 2008* The ‘Nederlands Blazers Ensemble (NBE)’ has created a 'new' opera genre - the chamber opera – suitable to be performed at all kinds of locations. The music is well-accessible for meer...

Poetry

Poetry Circus 2008
The Poetry Circus organizes literature and poetry performances for a young, new and varied audience. The combination of experienced poets and new talent turns out to be a great success. The organisation is, however, beginning to become too large and too successful to remain fully dependent on volunteers.

The Turing Foundation contributes € 14,000 to the projects of the Poetry Circus in 2008, in order to help this young, ambitious organisation professionalize.

Presentation of the Golden Albatros NK Poetry Slam

Adoption poetry section and special poetry issues of De Gids
The Dutch cultural and literary magazine De Gids has already been published for 170 years. Its aim is to promote literature and to stimulate the Dutch cultural and social debate. De Gids holds a unique position within the Dutch literary circles and prints in each issue prose and poetry next to essays on art, science and politics. Once a year, De Gids devotes a special issue to poetry.

The Turing Foundation adopts the poetry section and special poetry issues of De Gids up until 2010 by donating € 30,000.

A special poetry issue of De Gids

Four-year cycle of poetry anthologies
Publishing house Van Oorschot is planning to publish twelve beautifully printed hardcover anthologies in the coming four years. These anthologies feature the very best poems by excellent Dutch poets (who however are about to be forgotten by the general public), presented by enthusiastic and well-known anthologists. A website will be developed on the series, where people can subscribe to receiving one poem from the anthologies by e-mail - for free - on each working day. In this way, Van Oorschot aims to reach a new and modern reading public.

By donating € 15,000, the Turing Foundation adopts the first three anthologies of the series by Van Oorschot, thereby achieving a selling price all can afford. If successful, the Turing Foundation will financially support the rest of the cycle too.

De Week van de Poëzie 2008 ('First Love')
Many large and sparkling, or instead modest poetry activities and events related to poetry from all over the Netherlands come together in De Week van de Poëzie [poetry week]. At least 60 poetry events organised by libraries, stages, book shops and publishers will take place during De Week van de Poëzie (5 to 11 April 2008). This year's theme is First Love.

The Turing Foundation donates € 25,000 to the 2008 Week van de Poëzie, of which € 5,000 will be used to finance the collection of poems presented at the end of the week by De Poëzieclub and the poetry magazine Awater.

De Eerste Liefde

Gedichtendag 2008 (31 January 2008)
Every year, Gedichtendag [Poem Day] brings poetry to the notice on a national level. Three hundred poetry activities will take place on or around 31 January 2008 (including lectures, recitals and school and library projects). Newspapers will publish poems, there will be poetry readings on radio and TV, poems are recited in the House of Commons and the Gedichtendag collection of poems will be printed in a large run and sold against a low price. The theme for Poem Day of 2008 is the relation between poetry and every day objects.

By contributing € 30,000, the Turing Foundation is the main supporter of Gedichtendag 2008.

De Gedichtendag 2008

38th edition of Poetry International Festival (16 to 22 June 2007)
The Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam has through the years proven itself as the leading (inter)national poetry festival. The theme for 2007 is the relation between poetry, insanity and melancholy. Several Dutch and international poets will participate in the festival.

The Turing Foundation commits € 20,000 towards activities at the 38th edition of Poetry International that are meant to make poetry more accessible.

Poetry International Festival

Main supporter of De Week van de Poëzie 2007 - 'Birth'
Many large and sparkling, or instead modest poetry activities and events related to poetry from all over the Netherlands come together in Week van de Poëzie [poetry week]. At least 60 poetry events organised by libraries, stages, book shops and publishers will take place during De Week van de Poëzie. The opening event of the Week van de Poëzie is a poetry manifestation in De Rode Hoed on Saturday April 21st, organised in cooperation with De Poëzieclub. The theme is Birth.

By contributing € 40,000, the Turing Foundation is the main supporter of De Week van de Poëzie. Of the total donation, € 5,000 will be used to finance the collection of poems 'Eerste Wonder' [First Miracle], compiled by Tsjead Bruinja and Thomas Mohlmann. The collection will be presented on 21 April by De Poëzieclub and the poetry magazine Awater.

De Week van de Poëzie: De Geboorte

Painting

Turing Car for the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum and the Chabot Museum
Free of charge, comfortable and safe transport turns out to be the primary factor to break down the barriers for schools to take their children on a visit to a museum. The Turing Foundation will therefore finance a special ‘Turing Car’ until 2010, that will transport children from Rotterdam and surroundings to and from the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and the Chabot Museum free of charge. On top of that, each child will also receive a ‘Turing Card’ on the Turing Car, with which the child can return to the museum together with an adult, also free of charge. This project has the ambition to ultimately have each pupil from each primary school in the Rotterdam region go to these museums at least once in their school career.

The Turing Foundation will invest € 140,000 in this project until 2010 (€ 50,000 in 2008, € 30,000 in 2009 and € 50,000 in 2010; € 10,000 was already spent on a feasibility study in 2007).

Turing Car for Boijmans van Beuningen / Chabot Museum (Artist Impression)

The 'Zwoele Zomeravonden' of the Kröller-Müller Museum
The Kröller-Müller Museum is famous for its collection (Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, Mondriaan) and its sculpture garden. Since 2006, the museum organises innovative music and theatre performances on Summer evenings, meant to increase the interest in the collection and to introduce it to new audiences.

As its main patron, the Turing Foundation will donate € 30,000 to the Zwoele Zomeravonden [Sultry Summer Evenings] in 2008.

Alfred Schaffer in the new Kröller-Müller Amphitheater (Zwoele Zomeravond 7-7-2007)

Main supporter of 'Back to Zeeland', Zeeuws Museum, 2008
The Zeeuws Museum was reopened in 2007 after a radical rebuilding and renovation campaign. The museum displays the Zeeland identity and heritage through its own collection in a modern design and in an international context. The first large Summer exhibition at this renewed museum, Terug Naar Zeeland [Back to Zeeland] (May to September 2008), presents important showpieces from cities such as Copenhagen and Antwerp, manufactured in Zeeland in the 16th and 17th centuries, which are now reunited in Zeeland for the first time in 150 years.

By contributing € 65,000, the Turing Foundation is the main supporter of the exhibition Terug Naar Zeeland.

Het Zeeuws Museum

Portrait of an emissary from the kingdom of Congo,
probably Don Miguel de Castro ca 1645, attributed to Albert Eckhout.

Boijmans van Beuningen - Dutch Primitives: Painters from the Late Middle Ages, Feb-May 2008
For the first time in over fifty years, there will be an exhibition on the origin of Dutch painting in the county of Holland of that day. The Museum Boijmans van Beuningen shows how a very typical and individual style of painting developed in Holland around 1500.

Fragile, 500 year old panels are rarely loaned, but for this unique exhibition, loans from all over the world will come to Rotterdam: from the Louvre in Paris, the National Gallery in London, the Staatlichen Museen in Berlin, the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, but also from private collections and of course from the collection of the Boijmans museum itself.

"Dutch Primitives: Painters from the Late Middle Ages" will run from February to May 2008 at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. As its main sponsor, the Turing Foundation donates € 100,000 to the exhibition. see also:
Dutch Primitives. Paintings from the late Middle Ages (Boijmans)
Giften voor Boijmans en Joods Museum (Algemeen Dagblad)

Dutch Primitives: Painters from the Late Middle Ages

Jewish Historical Museum 2008 - Unknown Modern Masterpieces from Moscow
The Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam presents unknown masterpieces by Russian-Jewish artists from the period 1910-1940. The works, forming part of the collections of the world-famous Tretjakov Gallery and the Bachroesjin Theatre Museum in Moscow, are displayed in the Netherlands for the very first time. The paintings represent the styles of both the avant-garde and social realism. Works will be shown by painters including Issak Brodsky, El Lissitzky, Ilya Chashnik and Solomon Nikritin.

By contributing € 60,000, the Turing Foundation is the main sponsor of the exhibition (19 October to 10 February 2008). see also:
Schenking Joods Historisch Museum (NIW)
Moderne meesterwerken uit Moskou (JHM)
Giften voor Boijmans en Joods Museum (Algemeen Dagblad)

Robert Falk, Portrait of a Woman in a Red Dress, 1918. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
On display at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam until February 2008

Frans Hals Museum - 'The De Bray Family', Feb-Jun 2008
In 2008, the Frans Hals Museum of Haarlem is setting up a special exhibition on the painters of the seventeenth century De Bray family, in cooperation with the London Dulwich Picture Gallery. During the exhibition (2 February to 21 June 2008), loans from famous museums in Paris, Washington, Edinburgh, Warsaw and Los Angeles will be on display.

The Turing Foundation is the main sponsor of 'The De Bray Family' exhibition, donating € 45,000. see also:
Grote De Bray-expositie in Frans Hals Museum (Haarlems Dagblad)
Video-rapportage over de De Bray-expositie
Pieter Biesboer bezig met De Bray-expositie in Frans Hals
It must be in the genes! (press release)

Venus and Cupid in the forge of Vulcan
(Jan Salomonsz De Bray, 1683, 213 x 208 cm)

Extension opening hours Museum Belvédère 2007-2009
Museum Belvédère is the first museum for modern and contemporary art in Friesland. The museum is located in Museumpark Landgoed Oranjewoud. Its permanent collection consists of works by important Frisian painters, painters who have lived in Friesland and works by partners in style from home and abroad. Apart from that, half of the museum is dedicated to changing exhibitions.

A donation by the Turing Foundation (€ 17,000) enables the museum to open longer twice a week, exclusively for young people.

Museum Belvedere

Classical and contemporary music

Noorderkerk Concerts: Marketplace for Music
The Noorderkerk Concerts Foundation wants to reach a new and varied audience with short, easily accessible concerts of high quality, given in an informal atmosphere. Each year the foundation organises a series of 30 to 35 concerts in the Noorderkerk, located at the Noordermarkt, in the heart of the Amsterdam Jordaan area. Each Saturday, directly after the organic market, NKC plays contemporary or classical music at this location.

The Turing Foundation contributes € 25,000 to this initiative in 2008.

De Noorderkerk, Amsterdam

Rossini's Opera Il Turco In Italia, 2008
The Nederlands Blazers Ensemble (NBE) has created a 'new' opera genre - the chamber opera – suitable to be performed at multiple types of locations and with well-accessible music for starting or younger visitors of opera. In the fall of 2008 the ensemble will perform Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia, adapted into a chamber opera.

The Turing Foundation contributes € 20,000 to this series of concerts.

Chamber Opera 'The Barber of Seville’ by the NBE

Delft Chamber Music Festival
The Delft Chamber Music Festival has been organising performances of chamber music in the summer months for over 20 years. Every year, around 6,000 music lovers from all over the Netherlands visit this festival in Museum ‘De Prinsenhof’ in Delft. The 2008 festival will be held from 1 to 10 August.

With a onetime donation of € 20,000 the Turing Foundation contributes to a number of activities in order to interest more youth and a new audience in chamber music, with the expectation that these will be able to finance themselves in the years after. Examples are the free of charge lunch concerts and the cocktail concerts.

Music Registrations of Earlier Delft Chamber Music Festivals

Wouter van Bemmel's "Persweeën"
The Weerdruk Foundation will perform the composition "Persweeën" by Wouter van Bemmel during Open Monument Day on 14 September, 2008, in the Amsterdam Veem Theater. The sound of printing presses running and the Monotype pouring machine form the basis of this piece of music. The piece will also be performed during the final manifestation of Amsterdam Wereldboekenstad in April 2009.

The Turing Foundation finances the performances of this piece of music on 14 September, 2008 with € 4,350.

Wouter van Bemmel's ‘Persweeën’: piece of music for printing press and orchestra

Muziekvoorstelling "Ik en de Koningin", Max Tak
Orkest Max Tak produces the show Ik en de Koningin (Me and the Queen), based on the novel of the same name by poet and novelist Ted van Lieshout. In the show the orchestra plays the leading role; a total of 10 musicians, accompanied by singer Lottie Hellingman. The purpose of the show is to give children who have never before seen an orchestra perform live, and have no knowledge of classical music, a first introduction to music.

The Turing Foundation contributes € 35,000 to the performances of Ik en de Koningin in 2008.

"Ik en de Koningin" by the Max Tak Orchestra

Main supporter of the Ricciotti Ensemble
The Ricciotti Ensemble consists of 40 idealistic (conservatory) students who give 100 concerts a year for people who are unable to attend live performances of symphonic music. The orchestra plays at venues such as care homes, prisons, schools and asylum centres.

The Turing Foundation will be the main sponsor of the Ricciotti Ensemble in 2007, 2008 and 2009 (€ 35,000 a year). see also: Turing Foundation hoofddonateur ricciotti

Ricciotti plays in a hospital

Holland Festival 2008: La Pasion segun San Marcos
The Holland Festival has been offering a sampling of impressive and spectacular artistic projects from all over the world since 1947: theatre, music, dance, opera and plastic arts. After the successful cooperation for 'Era La Notte' in 2007, the Turing Foundation has decided to be the main supporter of the closing performance of the 2008 Holland Festival again by donating €50,000. 'La Pasión según San Marcos' will receive its Dutch premiere in the Carré Theatre of Amsterdam on 22 June 2008. The performance will be televised live on Nederland 2 by the NPS.

International art critics have called 'La Pasión según San Marcos' the first masterpiece of the 21st century". In this swinging, large choral work, the Argentinean composer Golijov blends apparently incompatible styles from numerous cultures, from Western classical violin melodies to American gospel; from South-American new tango to Spanish flamenco. Parts of the text originate from the Gospel according to St Mark.